Danao Tiāngōng Puke

Published April 20, 2025 Updated April 20, 2025

Children’s playing cards based on the 1961 Chinese animated feature film 大闹天宫 (Havoc in Heaven).

1961 China Shanghai Playing Card Factory Animation Folklore Literature Movies & Film Pop Culture

“Havoc in Heaven is a tale from traditional Chinese folklore, famously adapted into an animated film by Shanghai Animation Film Studio in the early 1960s. The stylized characters on these cards follow the film’s visual aesthetic and include Sun Wukong (the beloved and rebellious Monkey King), Yu Huang Da Di (the Jade Emperor, ruler of Heaven), alongside various celestial attendants, consorts and mythical creatures such as dragons and demons. The story is an adaptation of episodes from the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, and the cards introduce children to iconic characters from Chinese literature and mythology.

The Jokers feature Sun Wukong inside a circular motif surrounded by multiple monkeys and the text “Beautiful Monkey Children's Playing Cards” and “Havoc in Heaven”. The back design shows Sun Wukong mid-leap, wielding his his magical staff. The box shows Sun Wukong holding an Ace of Spades with the words “Children’s Playing Cards produced by the Shanghai Playing Card Factory”.

playing cards based on the 1961 Chinese animated feature film 大闹天宫 (Havoc in Heaven) directed by Wan Laiming playing cards based on the 1961 Chinese animated feature film 大闹天宫 (Havoc in Heaven) directed by Wan Laiming playing cards based on the 1961 Chinese animated feature film 大闹天宫 (Havoc in Heaven) directed by Wan Laiming

Above: children’s playing cards produced by the Shanghai Playing Card Factory based on the 1961 Chinese animated feature film 大闹天宫 (Havoc in Heaven) directed by Wan Laiming. The cards measure 66x46 mm.

Reference

Wikipedia : Havoc in Heaven

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By Jon Randall

Member since May 28, 2020

From 6 or 7 years of age I enjoyed playing cards with my family, and still enjoy a variety of games today with various groups and individuals. I contribute my competitive nature to enjoying games … it’s not that I like to win, I dislike losing! I was barely 10 years old when my great Uncle left me a small collection of playing cards and that was the starting point of my collecting. The competitive streak in me helped develop me into a competitive swimmer that sent me to various places around the world, including a 6 year stint in the US, where for much of that time I was at university. I’ve always enjoyed car boots flea markets, yard sales, charity shops etc., and my eye would never miss a pack of playing cards. Even after my swimming career finished I coached at a high level for many years and continued enjoying the discovery of some great finds around the world. For decades my collection continued to grow, despite selling a portion of it via eBay over the years. It wasn’t until post 2010 that I realised, mostly due to correspondence with Australian friends, that there were so many single playing card collectors. This intrigued me. I had so many packs of cards at home that I made the bold decision to share a good number with singles collectors, and subsequently listed around 7000 for sale on eBay. That did make a dent in my collection, but there’s still around 30,000 packs taking up quite a bit of space at home. Crazy? Yes, but I’ve seen bigger hoards a few times! There’s so many I surprise myself finding packs I forgot I had when I look in a box I’d not seen in a while.

My eBay IDs if you’d like to look are “worldwide_playing_cards” & “playing_cards_world

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